Reference management software

sureitsgrand

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some opinions on good quality reference management software (for Macs in particular).

I'm not too happy with Endnote or Refworks and am thinking of trying either Sente or Bookends. Does anyone have any experience of either of these - or even both?

I know there are free versions of both and will defo give them a go...I'd just like to know which one to try out first!

- My research is in the social sciences.
- I'm looking for simple syncing between Mac and iPad.
- It has to allow annotation and note-taking on both Mac and iPad.
- I want to use it for the collection and storage of PDFs as well as CYWYW and producing bibliographies.

Thanks!

Tree

I'm a big fan of Mendeley. I don't use apple products, but I believe it's compatible. They do have online syncing and searching of your library, along with highlighting, annotating and tagging doc's. The plugin for LibreOffice and MSWord work well (and it also generates a handy bibTeX output too).

sureitsgrand

Thanks for the reply.

I've used Mendeley and found it pretty good for short assignments and journal articles but now as I'm putting together my thesis I've decided to 'upgrade' (if it even is upgrading...I dunno...but my supervisor has recommended going for either of the two aforementioned).

Thanks again!

zl1whqvjs75cdy

I'm using mendeley for my PhD thesis and it's absolutely perfect for the job. Don't know why you'd look elsewhere.

Dingle_berry

I'm using Zotero at the minute - I'm not sure about its ipad compatibility or highlighting/editing but it is free!
I've heard of Papers, it has an ipad app as well as an OS one. Supposed to allow highlighting, annotation, etc. Price turned me off though.

djpbarry

donkeyoaty0099 wrote: »

I'm using mendeley for my PhD thesis and it's absolutely perfect for the job. Don't know why you'd look elsewhere.

Because it was recently acquired by Elsevier - that's as good a reason as any not to use it anymore.

I'm another Zotero user myself.

innad

I use Zotero and EndNote, but mainly EndNote. I'm a Mac user as well.

Can I ask what it is about EndNote you don't like?

sureitsgrand

I find Endnote quite buggy at times and the interface of Mendeley etc. tends to be more user-friendly, IMO.

Then just from researching blogs, CNET etc. it seems that Bookends and Sente seem to be the most popular payware for Macs....So just thought I'd seek some opinions!